My family of four adults (ages 27-61) struck out on a whirlwind tour of IoA/US on Valentine's Day! We were headed to Disney for a week, but I couldn't go to Orlando for a week and not visit WWoHP! Fortunately the rest of the people in my group appeased me and we set aside one day to leave the Mouse and trek it over IoA/US. Since not everyone in our party was a HP fan, we wanted to make the most of the two parks, but did not want to spend more than one day. When we initially planned our trip, the park hours were posted as 9am-7pm, but shortly before the trip, the park hours changed to 9am-6pm, which was a bummer since it meant one less hour and losing the chance to see WWoHP at night. But, what can you do....
First, we needed transportation and I cannot recommend Ed Korgan enough. I found him here on the DIS boards and of course you guys came through! We had a shuttle driver pick us up in front of our hotel (Pop Century) at 7:45am. The round trip cost for four adults was $80 (only $4 more than Mears!) and we threw in an extra $20 for tip. For me, this extra $20 was totally worth it since we didn't have to go to any other hotels to pick people up on the way to Universal. Also, our driver was nice enough to drop us off at Downtown Disney at the end of the day instead of Pop (a last minute decision since we were done at IoA an hour early than planned).
After being dropped off at the bus/taxi drop off, we made our way through the City Walk and arrived at the gates of IoA around 8:30am, second in line at the turn styles! Although it was sad to see on-site guests getting into the park already, we knew we were getting our just desserts since we had been doing that at Disney all week. Luckily, it was a blue day according to the Express Pass, so we had high hopes for light crowds.
As I mentioned previously, we were a party of four adults (two HP fans, two who had never read an HP book or seen any of the movies). We are all avid roller coaster fanatics and since we were lacking any children we knew we wanted to pack our day with as much thrill ride fun as we could manage. We also were using the Disney Dining Plan and knew that we had 'free' food waiting for us back at the resort so we filled up on a big breakfast at our hotel and were planning on subsisting on butterbeer and small treats for the day.
So 8:50 rolls around and they open the gates for everyone. Against the advice of the boards, we decided to head straight to WWoHP because I didn't want to end up missing it because we ran out of time and couldn't get back by 6pm. We headed through Dr. Suess and saw people attempting the Green Eggs and Ham shortcut, only to be turned back around, so we persevered around the carousel to get our first glimpses of Hogsmeade. As a huge HP fan, it was so hard to not stop and take it all in as we walked through the gates for the first time, but we were on a mission to get to FJ before the crowds gathered. We had decided to skip Ollivanders based on the reports from the boards and the fact that since we were adults more interested in rides than shows. We agreed that if we saw a shorter line later in the day, we would consider it. FJ reported wait time was 15min. Thanks again to the boards I knew not to bring my small camera bag and instead wore cargo pants that had zipped pockets (best suggestion EVER!). We then bypassed the lockers and were on the ride in less than 15min. There was no time to linger in the castle as the line was moving quickly, but we knew we'd be back again. As for the ride, WOW, it lived up to everything I thought it would be AND MORE. Even the two adults in a our party that were non-HP fans were speechless. We all agreed it was the best ride we'd ever been on. Unfortunately, the ride paused in the middle of one of the screens and we missed part of that vignette, but honestly it was good for me because it was a bit of sensory overload. We exited the ride and immediately went back for another round. Wait time was still 15min, but this time it actually took the 15min as there were more people, but it was nice to see more of the rooms.
After FJ, we went over to Dragon Challenge (decided to skip FotH), which was the biggest frustration of our entire day. I'd read on the boards that DC usually has little to no wait. The wait time said 5min, but we waited about 15min to ride the blue one (Hungarian Horntail I believe?). What frustrates me the most about Universal in comparison to Disney is that there is no direction in the queue. No one organizing where people should go, etc. This extends the wait time greatly in a ride like this. They were also only running one of each coaster, which I could already tell was not going to be enough. And sure enough after exiting and returning to ride the other side, we found the line backed up to past the splitting of the queue. Also, they stopped the line completely for about 15min to add another coaster to each track. They obviously needed to do this, but it was only 930am. Shouldn't IoA realized that this was going to be needed and just started off the day with two coasters on each track? Overall we waited about 45min to ride the red one and while they were good coasters, the exaggerated and unnecessary wait times (especially when the posted wait time was still 5min when we exited!!!), left us frustrated.
We then decided to improve our spirits with a butterbeer. Thanks again to the boards for suggesting getting the butterbeer inside Hog's Head, as the lines outside were about 10-15 people long and Hog's Head was EMPTY! We ordered 4 frozen butterbeers and they lived up to the hype! SOOO delicious! We spent a little more time walking around Hogsmeade and snapping pictures. The stores were a bit crowded, but at least no lines to get back in.
Now it was around 11am and we decided to see how many other rides we could fit in before 6pm. First up was Jurassic Park and although the wait time said 10min, we got stuck in another round of adding another ride vehicle that delayed us 15min. We then headed over to Spiderman, which had we not just ridden FJ twice would have seemed like an amazing ride. But after FJ, it just seemed a little lacking to me (what wouldn't?). Next up was Hulk, where we were not expecting that acceleration! We almost skipped that ride because we had all ridden a roller coaster like it at a local Six Flags! We decided to skip Dr. Doom and make our way over to US.
First up at US: HRR! Line was less than 10min and what an amazing roller coaster! We then moved over to the Mummy followed by the Simpsons and MIB (all with <15min wait). One member of our group LOVES disaster movies, so we ended up waiting about 30min for the Disaster ride, which was so-so.
It was now 3:30 and we had fleeting thoughts of riding HRR again, but in the end we decided to head back to WWoHP! Line for Ollivanders still looked about 45min, so we decided to skip it. Wait time at 4:15 for FJ was listed at 30min so we decided to wait. It was nice to be able to really see the castle this time and it ended up being only about 20min. We all wanted to ride again, but not go through the queue so we decided to check out the single rider line. Waited less than 5min AND we got to ride two people together and then the other two people in our group got to ride together. I know this is rare in the single rider line, so I wouldn't expect it going in, but what a nice treat!
We then decided to take a break for one last butterbeer. Three frozen, one regular plus a pumpkin juice. Pumpkin juice was just okay. Tasted like apple cider to me. We all agreed we liked the frozen butterbeer best, but glad we tasted both regular and frozen. We sat out on the patio of the three broomsticks and drank our tasty beverages in the fading sunlight beneath Hogwarts. After hitting the single rider line twice more for FJ (really, it is truly the best ride I've been on!), we bought a few souvenirs and were finally booted out around 6:30pm.
Overall, it was an awesome day and I'm glad we decided to spend a day away from Disney to see the awesomeness that is WWoHP. I do wish we had had more time for other rides/shows and more rerides of things like HRR and Hulk, but we decided as a group we would rather ride FJ over and over instead. Even though we didn't get to do everything, we got to do everything we wanted without losing another day at a Disney park. It was definitely the way to go for us.
I wanted to put up this trip report because there are a lot of topics about how you can't do both parks in one day and I wanted to give a summary of how four roller coaster loving adults were able to see everything they wanted, plus ride FJ six, yes SIX, times. Granted, it was a Monday during the slow season, so I know it wouldn't work for everyone, but it worked for us and we had the most amazing time.
Thanks again for everyone on the boards. I would have spent MUCH more of my time waiting in line for lockers and butterbeer if it weren't for you guys! Hopefully my post will pay it forward!
First, we needed transportation and I cannot recommend Ed Korgan enough. I found him here on the DIS boards and of course you guys came through! We had a shuttle driver pick us up in front of our hotel (Pop Century) at 7:45am. The round trip cost for four adults was $80 (only $4 more than Mears!) and we threw in an extra $20 for tip. For me, this extra $20 was totally worth it since we didn't have to go to any other hotels to pick people up on the way to Universal. Also, our driver was nice enough to drop us off at Downtown Disney at the end of the day instead of Pop (a last minute decision since we were done at IoA an hour early than planned).
After being dropped off at the bus/taxi drop off, we made our way through the City Walk and arrived at the gates of IoA around 8:30am, second in line at the turn styles! Although it was sad to see on-site guests getting into the park already, we knew we were getting our just desserts since we had been doing that at Disney all week. Luckily, it was a blue day according to the Express Pass, so we had high hopes for light crowds.
As I mentioned previously, we were a party of four adults (two HP fans, two who had never read an HP book or seen any of the movies). We are all avid roller coaster fanatics and since we were lacking any children we knew we wanted to pack our day with as much thrill ride fun as we could manage. We also were using the Disney Dining Plan and knew that we had 'free' food waiting for us back at the resort so we filled up on a big breakfast at our hotel and were planning on subsisting on butterbeer and small treats for the day.
So 8:50 rolls around and they open the gates for everyone. Against the advice of the boards, we decided to head straight to WWoHP because I didn't want to end up missing it because we ran out of time and couldn't get back by 6pm. We headed through Dr. Suess and saw people attempting the Green Eggs and Ham shortcut, only to be turned back around, so we persevered around the carousel to get our first glimpses of Hogsmeade. As a huge HP fan, it was so hard to not stop and take it all in as we walked through the gates for the first time, but we were on a mission to get to FJ before the crowds gathered. We had decided to skip Ollivanders based on the reports from the boards and the fact that since we were adults more interested in rides than shows. We agreed that if we saw a shorter line later in the day, we would consider it. FJ reported wait time was 15min. Thanks again to the boards I knew not to bring my small camera bag and instead wore cargo pants that had zipped pockets (best suggestion EVER!). We then bypassed the lockers and were on the ride in less than 15min. There was no time to linger in the castle as the line was moving quickly, but we knew we'd be back again. As for the ride, WOW, it lived up to everything I thought it would be AND MORE. Even the two adults in a our party that were non-HP fans were speechless. We all agreed it was the best ride we'd ever been on. Unfortunately, the ride paused in the middle of one of the screens and we missed part of that vignette, but honestly it was good for me because it was a bit of sensory overload. We exited the ride and immediately went back for another round. Wait time was still 15min, but this time it actually took the 15min as there were more people, but it was nice to see more of the rooms.
After FJ, we went over to Dragon Challenge (decided to skip FotH), which was the biggest frustration of our entire day. I'd read on the boards that DC usually has little to no wait. The wait time said 5min, but we waited about 15min to ride the blue one (Hungarian Horntail I believe?). What frustrates me the most about Universal in comparison to Disney is that there is no direction in the queue. No one organizing where people should go, etc. This extends the wait time greatly in a ride like this. They were also only running one of each coaster, which I could already tell was not going to be enough. And sure enough after exiting and returning to ride the other side, we found the line backed up to past the splitting of the queue. Also, they stopped the line completely for about 15min to add another coaster to each track. They obviously needed to do this, but it was only 930am. Shouldn't IoA realized that this was going to be needed and just started off the day with two coasters on each track? Overall we waited about 45min to ride the red one and while they were good coasters, the exaggerated and unnecessary wait times (especially when the posted wait time was still 5min when we exited!!!), left us frustrated.
We then decided to improve our spirits with a butterbeer. Thanks again to the boards for suggesting getting the butterbeer inside Hog's Head, as the lines outside were about 10-15 people long and Hog's Head was EMPTY! We ordered 4 frozen butterbeers and they lived up to the hype! SOOO delicious! We spent a little more time walking around Hogsmeade and snapping pictures. The stores were a bit crowded, but at least no lines to get back in.
Now it was around 11am and we decided to see how many other rides we could fit in before 6pm. First up was Jurassic Park and although the wait time said 10min, we got stuck in another round of adding another ride vehicle that delayed us 15min. We then headed over to Spiderman, which had we not just ridden FJ twice would have seemed like an amazing ride. But after FJ, it just seemed a little lacking to me (what wouldn't?). Next up was Hulk, where we were not expecting that acceleration! We almost skipped that ride because we had all ridden a roller coaster like it at a local Six Flags! We decided to skip Dr. Doom and make our way over to US.
First up at US: HRR! Line was less than 10min and what an amazing roller coaster! We then moved over to the Mummy followed by the Simpsons and MIB (all with <15min wait). One member of our group LOVES disaster movies, so we ended up waiting about 30min for the Disaster ride, which was so-so.
It was now 3:30 and we had fleeting thoughts of riding HRR again, but in the end we decided to head back to WWoHP! Line for Ollivanders still looked about 45min, so we decided to skip it. Wait time at 4:15 for FJ was listed at 30min so we decided to wait. It was nice to be able to really see the castle this time and it ended up being only about 20min. We all wanted to ride again, but not go through the queue so we decided to check out the single rider line. Waited less than 5min AND we got to ride two people together and then the other two people in our group got to ride together. I know this is rare in the single rider line, so I wouldn't expect it going in, but what a nice treat!
We then decided to take a break for one last butterbeer. Three frozen, one regular plus a pumpkin juice. Pumpkin juice was just okay. Tasted like apple cider to me. We all agreed we liked the frozen butterbeer best, but glad we tasted both regular and frozen. We sat out on the patio of the three broomsticks and drank our tasty beverages in the fading sunlight beneath Hogwarts. After hitting the single rider line twice more for FJ (really, it is truly the best ride I've been on!), we bought a few souvenirs and were finally booted out around 6:30pm.
Overall, it was an awesome day and I'm glad we decided to spend a day away from Disney to see the awesomeness that is WWoHP. I do wish we had had more time for other rides/shows and more rerides of things like HRR and Hulk, but we decided as a group we would rather ride FJ over and over instead. Even though we didn't get to do everything, we got to do everything we wanted without losing another day at a Disney park. It was definitely the way to go for us.
I wanted to put up this trip report because there are a lot of topics about how you can't do both parks in one day and I wanted to give a summary of how four roller coaster loving adults were able to see everything they wanted, plus ride FJ six, yes SIX, times. Granted, it was a Monday during the slow season, so I know it wouldn't work for everyone, but it worked for us and we had the most amazing time.
Thanks again for everyone on the boards. I would have spent MUCH more of my time waiting in line for lockers and butterbeer if it weren't for you guys! Hopefully my post will pay it forward!
